{besties} Birthday

We all have one. a lucky few of us even have two or three.

the loyal friend. the non-judgemental friend. the generous friend. the beautiful friend.

the friend you admire and respect. the friend you trust. the friend that always supports you. 

the unique friend. the interesting friend. the best friend.

Happy Birthday to my {bestie}

you are all of these to me and more. I love you.

Give mommara some birthday love on her blog today!

Summah-time List {update}

Exactly {one} month ago I posted about my Summer To-Do list.

A list of things that I wanted to make time for. accomplish. play. do.

Having this list has been amazing. I have it framed on the corner of my desk.

I look at it daily. mentally checking things off as we do them. It has been a wonderful month.

homemade icecream

fireworks

new cupcake recepies

drive in movie

week at the beach

one book read

long walks with cole

lots and lots of flipflops

Looking forward to another fun filled month of Summer.

Did you make a summer checklist?

Chalkboard

I finally got around to finishing a chalkboard paint project this weekend...

I used a frame I picked up at Goodwill {$3}

wood from the Home Depot scrap bin {.58 cents}

already had white spray paint & chalkboard paint

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a few other really cute options...

{via Diving Meet}

{via Your little birdie}

{via Burlap Luxe}

Cupcake Recipe

On my summer to-do list I made sure and put that I would try new cupcake recipes...

and I had a successful one this week!

The middle cupcake was everyone's favorite!!

Just thought I would share.

Cake:
3/4 cup unsalted butter
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
2 1/2 cups flour
1 1/4 cups milk
1/4 cup half-and-half
@ 350 for 15-18 min.

Frosting:
3/4 cup mint chocolate morsels
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
2 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup cocoa
1/4 cup half-and-half
1/4 teaspoon peppermint extract {I may have trippled}
shave (with a carrot peeler) andies mints on top.

July

I really loved the ice cream cones from last months shadow box...

so it was hard to swap them out.

But, these little guys turned out super cute too! :)

We usually use glue dots to attach the paper, but in order to give the crabs some leg room, we used cut up straws. and hot glue. {the little glue strings made us crazy by the end}

See March, April, May, June

I've decided that it would be really easy to mail-out the paper punches for each months shadow box if you guys were interested in making them along with me. Just a thought.

Let me know if you're interested. fo free.

Winner{s}

Thanks to all who participated in my 200th post Giveaway!

 I met a few new blog friends and I'm looking forward

 to checking out all of your blogs!

Without further ado...

Blog Makeover Winner

{by Small Bird Studio}

Bargain Mom

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$50 Victoria Secret Gift card Winner

LeAnn @ Magical Memories

Congrats ladies!! Please email me with your contact info so we can set things up!

**I picked my winners the old fashioned way... printed & cut out comments, pulled from a bowl.**